President Trump gave a superb speech last night as he announced his 2024 candidacy for the White House. It was an issues speech, a high-content speech, a visionary speech.  

It was a circa-2016 speech, when he ran for president on key issues such as the economy, tax cuts, deregulation, and blowing the whistle on China. It was a speech aimed at the blue-collar working people and the minority groups that Mr. Trump has brought into the Republican Party.  

He talked about “national greatness” and “making the nation great and glorious again.” Promoting daring dreams. Big ideas. Bold ambitions. It was a speech about freedom, values, individual responsibility, and common sense. It was an America First speech supporting the American worker.  

Mr. Trump pledged to go back to low taxes, low regulation, and fair trade. He singled out what he called the “socialist disaster” known as the Green New Deal, and in the process raised a very interesting point about the dismal deal.  

The Bidens’ radical climate change, central-planning policies — which they want to use to wipe out oil and gas and somehow substitute with windmills and solar — would never have the power to fire up our great factories and plants.  

They say, “The ocean will rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 200-300 years. But don’t worry about nuclear weapons that could take out entire countries with one shot.” Something is wrong with their thinking.  

Mr. Trump talked about unleashing oil and gas to recreate energy independence and dominance, and how that would bring down inflation, back to the 1 percent level where he left it.  

In fact, he spent a good deal of time on his economic success. Not once, but twice, did the economy roar while he was in power: Before the pandemic, and then the V-shaped recovery as the pandemic gradually wore down.  

He ended the ISIS Caliphate. He nailed Al-Baghdadi. He negotiated the historic Abraham Accords. He also negotiated tough reciprocal trade deals with Japan, South Korea, the USMCA, and Phase One with China. 

Of course, he blasted President Biden at every turn. He promised to end the Bidens’ American decline and to get us out of the ditch. “Biden is the face of left-wing failure and corruption,” Mr. Trump said.  

Beside restoring economic incentives, he intends to close the border, reinstitute “Remain in Mexico,” stop “catch and release,” stop the fentanyl drug invasion, restore parental rights in the schools, rebuild the missile defense system, and tout the principles of hard work and merit. No more critical race theory.   

Here’s what wasn’t in the speech: Trash talk. There were no grievances. No 2020 election denial. It was a temperate speech. A well-considered speech.  

In that sense, we saw a new Donald Trump, hopefully discarding some baggage and returning to the successful campaign of 2016, which laid out a clear America First agenda that he implemented in his four-year term.  

Perhaps most of all, the speech was chock full of optimism. You know I love optimism. A national greatness agenda.  

Let me quote: “And together we will make America powerful again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. We will make America glorious again. And we will make America great, again.” 

Good stuff, Mr. President. Please keep it up.  

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.